PhD in sociology, with designated emphasis in feminist theory, University of California, Davis, USA

MA Sociology, University of California, Davis, USA

MA Development Studies, University of East Anglia

BSc Geography, London School of Economics

Employment

Lecturer in Sociology since 1 January 2011

2008–2010 ESRC Research Fellow, Department of Social Sciences, Roehampton University

2004–2007 Research Fellow on Leverhulme Trust-funded project, 'British Pakistanis: Exploring Differential Outcomes in relation to Gender and Social Capital'/Teaching Fellow, Department of Geography, University College London

2003–2004 Lecturer in Sociology, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent

Significant achievements and other involvement

Award of a three-year career development fellowship by the ESRC

Two awards for my book, Laotian Daughters: Working toward Community, Belonging and Environmental Justice (2012) Temple University Press: Outstanding Book published in 2012 for Social Sciences from the Association for Asian American Studies & Honourable Mention from the American Sociological Association Asia and Asian America Section.

Member of ESRC Peer Review College 2010-2015

Review articles for the following journals: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Ethnicities, and Culture & Religion.

Currently I am developing a new project on the Jain diaspora and the impact of their transnational social and political engagements in India. Funded through the Annual Adventures in Research Fund at Southampton, a pilot project investigates the role of Jain diaspora philanthropy and social remittances channelled through a Jain religious non-governmental organisation (NGO), the development paradigm and values adopted by this Jain NGO, and the social impact of this development on gender and caste relations, and class aspirations at the local level.

I have also engaged these research interests through:

- And an ESRC funded project, ‘Religion, Ethnicity, Citizenship: Young Jains in UK & USA’ (RES-063-27-0131), which investigated the role of religion in the lives of second-generation South Asian Jains, and the implications of involvement in Jain religious institutions and practices for wider processes of social and political identity formation and citizenship in the two societies.

- My doctoral research and subsequent monograph, ‘ Laotian Daughters: Working toward Community, Belonging and Environmental Justice’, (2012) Temple University Press, was an in-depth ethnographic study of second-generation Laotian girls involved in a youth project established by an environmental justice organization in the San Francisco –Bay area. The research analysed both the politics of incorporation in the USA and examined a grass-roots social/environmental justice organisation as a site of incorporation.

Between 2004-06 I was a Research Fellow on a Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘British Pakistanis: Exploring Differential Outcomes in relation to Gender and Social Capital’, led by Claire Dwyer (UCL) Tariq Modood and Suruchi Thapar-Bjokert (both at Bristol University). This project provided an opportunity to examine educational achievements and career aspirations among young British Pakistani women and men.

Book

Book Chapters

Shah, B. (2012). Early career reflections. In S. E. Baker, & R. Edwards (Eds.), How Many Qualitative Interviews is Enough? Expert Voices and Early Career Reflections on Sampling and Cases in Qualitative Research (pp. 41). (National Centre for Research Methods Reviews). Southampton, GB: National Centre for Research Methods.

Postgraduate level: I co-convene two qualitative methods modules that form part of methods training through the Doctoral Training Centre at Southampton.

Undergraduate level: I convene the first year core module, Foundations in Social Theory, and a second year optional module, Migration in a Globalizing World. I also contribute teaching to a first year compulsory module Transformations in the Modern World, and to a second year optional module, Race & Ethnicity in a Global Context.